Jeremy Corbyn suggests today that we could leave the EU without damaging our economy and public services. He’ll tell an audience in Essex, according to the Independent:

Mr Corbyn will say: “If you want to leave the EU without trashing our economy or selling out our NHS you’ll be able to vote for it.

He’ll outline a Labour policy that involves negotiating a new deal and then the Government will decide after that whether it will back the deal in a referendum or vote for Remain.

Kier Starmer sounded very uncomfortable as he explained all this on the Today programme this morning. When asked if Corbyn was a leaver or a remainer, he sounded very hesitant as he told us that Jeremy said he voted remain last time.

Starmer has spent the last couple of years being undermined by his party’s leader at every turn.

It’s significant that Corbyn is talking up Brexit the day after Nigel Farage said that his Brexit Party was going explicitly after Labour votes. In fact, Labour stands to lose far more by failing to come out full throttle for remain. There has been a steady stream of Labour people coming across to the Liberal Democrats because of our unequivocal position on Brexit.

This contrasts with the Liberal Democrat position which is very clearly to stop Brexit by democratic means – if we win a majority at the election, we’ll revoke Article 50, no ifs, no buts. If we don’t win a majority, we will campaign, as we have done until now, for a People’s Vote in which we will campaign with all our hearts for remain.

Corbyn avoided the question on freedom of movement, which would have to remain if we wanted single market access. This alone will lose him loads of traditional votes to Farage and perhaps the Conservatives. No questions on how he can have his wealth grab and nationalization when they are illegal under EU rules, which completely destroys the logic of his argument about either remaining or having a deal which involves the single market. From voters’ point of view you have the choice of a second referendum of remain v a pointless Corbyn exit. If Labout gets a decent majority what is to stop them turning around and saying EU rules make it impossible to implement their transformative policies so we have to leave without a deal! Hopefully, Jo will have the chance to get stuck into Corbyn in a live debate and highlight the total lack of logic in his policies.

Jean Claude Juncker has said tonight that he doesn’t think Labour’s plan is realistic, and that there will be no more extensions after 31 January. That means there would be no time to negotiate a new deal, and no time to have a referendum. In other words, the only options now are:
1. Leave with Johnson’s deal on 31 January.
2. Crash out without a deal on 31 January.
3. Revoke article 50 before 31 January, and stay in the EU.
We should be stressing this, and telling people the way to get 3 is to vote LibDem.

@ RossMCL,
In what way is Labour’s plan unrealistic. It seeks to negotiate a deal that keep us as close to the EU economically as possible? This would suit the EU far more than the current Conservative deal or a no deal Brexit. At least if a referendum on such a deal wins rather than the other option of remain, it would be a less damaging rupture than the one likely under the tories. ( and actually, Labour is not a leave party so I would expect remain to win if such a referendum took place).

The EU has been threatening no more extensions repeatedly. They will do what is in their best interests to do. The current situation is not in their best interests or ours, and they aren’t stupid, they have already shown a willingness to compromise.

@Jayne Mansfield 6th Nov ’19 – 7:21am
Corbyn’s planned Leave deal is ‘pay and no say.’ As our local Parliamentary candidate has just said –
‘In Government we will act on day one to Stop Brexit! Any other choice involves years more of wrangling about alternative Brexit deals and trade deals while we ignore vital issues such as Climate change, the NHS, Social care, Education and the lack of affordable housing. Only as a powerful voice for reform in the European Community of 450 million people, can Britain effectively shape the forces that will dictate our destiny as a nation.’
Amen to that!

I think Starmer and Corbyn are working together, not undermining each other. Labour wants to face both ways because they want to keep the Leave voters in their mainly Northern working class constituencies at the same time as retaining their Remain voters and members. In addition Corbyn doesn’t support the EU.
So it’s not an accident that they appear so muddled, it’s because they are following their voters not trying to lead them. I admire what David Lammy has been trying to do, which is to explain to their traditional supporters that Brexit will cause them great hardship and that they have been led astray by the propaganda of Tory supporting magnates and the right wing of the Tory party itself.

nvelope2003: Why should the voters want to vote for a party that has squabbled and dithered for three-and-a-half years since the referendum, and has still not even reached first base on Brexit? Who are these incompetents? The Tories, of course!

Before Johnson calls anyone else a ditherer, he ought to look in the mirror.

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